So, Minh Le Win Titled Tuesday; Le Enters Speed Chess Championship

GM Wesley So and Minh Le each won outright with a score of 10/11 in the May 27 editions of Titled Tuesday, the final tournaments of the 2025 Titled Tuesday Grand Prix. Le's performance carried him into the top eight in the Grand Prix standings, guaranteeing him a spot in the 2025 Speed Chess Championship (SCC). Titled Tuesday will continue as usual from here, of course, with its $5,000 weekly prize fund, but its 2025 SCC implications are over.

WGM Anna Shukhman swept the women's prizes, while So and Le set an unbreakable record for two Titled Tuesday winners of the same week: a combined four letters in their family/last names. 

Congratulations to Minh Le on winning the late #TitledTuesday! pic.twitter.com/DKRRfW5NZ4

— chess24 (@chess24com) May 28, 2025

The full list of SCC qualifiers, pending final review, is: GMs Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura, Liem Le, Arjun Erigaisi, Denis Lazavik, Jose Martinez, Minh Le, and Hans Niemann in the open; and GM Alexandra Kosteniuk, IM Polina Shuvalova, GM Aleksandra Goryachkina, IM Karina Ambartsumova, IM Meri Arabidze, WGM Aleksandra Maltsevskaya, FM Anastasia Avrimidou, and GM Jiner Zhu for the Women's Speed Chess Championship.

• Early Tournament (So, 10/11)
• Late Tournament (Le, 10/11)
• Grand Prix Qualifiers

Early Tournament

So hasn't played too many Titled Tuesdays, but he came out ahead of the 606-player pack in this one, his first win of the year and fourth since 2022—two of which came on the same day. Other than draws in the fourth and final rounds, he was perfect.

So's list of wins included the tournament's second-place finisher, GM Rinat Jumabayev, in the ninth round. The two traded queens early and reached an endgame without much drama until Jumabayev missed 33...a5, which won a pawn for Black, who didn't look back.

From there, So continued on his merry way, taking Black yet again, this time against Lazavik. Lazavik had his chances but ultimately made the final mistake, missing an in-between move that would have retained a material advantage, and instead gave it away for good.

But Jumabayev also stayed focused, and won his last two games to take second place by himself on 9.5 points. He clinched the runner-up position with a win over 15-year-old GM Ihor Samunenkov. The player with Black won again.

Six players tied for third on nine points, with Liem Le coming out ahead of GM Dmitry Andreikin on the third tiebreak and Lazavik rounding out the top five. Like Jumabayev, Le lost in round nine before winning his final two games. Le earned his final win—with Black, again—against 11-year-old FM Sergey Sklokin. (The kids will have their day eventually.) Unlike the other three games featured in this section, the win came gradually more than suddenly.

May 27 Titled Tuesday | Early | Final Standings (Top 20)

(Full final standings.)

Prizes: So $1,000, Jumabayev $750, Le $350, Andreikin $200, Lazavik $100, Shukhman $100.

Late Tournament

Minh Le entered the day half a point outside of the top eight in the Grand Prix standings. He only scored 6.5 points in the early event, but the people he needed to pass to make the SCC, GMs Oleksandr Bortnyk and Matthias Bluebaum, also did not add to their top 10 scores of the year.

All three were also among the 414 players in the late event, with Bluebaum holding onto eighth in the Grand Prix and Le and Bortnyk needing to improve. After eight rounds, Bortnyk was on six points and already out, having needed at least 9.5 points in the tournament to gain ground. Le, however, was still perfect in the event, putting him in excellent position to qualify.

Bluebaum, who needed to finish 3/3 to gain points, lost in the ninth round to end that. Le, meanwhile, took the first of two draws, which meant anything less than a win in the final round would still knock him out of the SCC spot—Bluebaum held the tiebreak thanks to a 10.5-point score back on February 18.

Playing for both the tournament and the spot, Le had to face the already-qualified Jose Martinez. Le had White and went to his trusted London System, but the game was a slugfest, and he found himself down two pawns after 33 moves. Six moves later, Martinez threatened checkmate—but hung a piece in the process, and resigned four moves after that.

In the end, here's how it played out for the three SCC hopefuls. "Target" is the score each needed to reach to gain half a standings point; stricken-out scores mean the player could no longer gain standings points after that round.

Le also achieved a full-point tournament win with the dramatic victory, leaving a five-way tie in second place on nine points. After tiebreaks, second went to GM Alexey Sarana, who entered the event also needing a 10/11 score to have a chance at the SCC but settled for his prize here after beating GM Levon Aronian in the final round.

GM Jeffery Xiong, who had effectively ended Sarana's SCC qualification chances in round nine, took third, GM Frederik Svane took fourth, and Bortnyk managed fifth.

May 27 Titled Tuesday | Late | Final Standings (Top 20)

(Full final standings.)

Prizes: Le $1,000, Sarana $750, Xiong $350, Svane $200, Bortnyk $100, Shukhman $100 (daily total of $200).

Grand Prix Qualifiers

The final open standings were as follows:

And the women's standings below. IM Le Thao Nguyen Pham fell short on tiebreaks, her best single score being 7/11 versus Zhu's 7.5/11.

Seniors (born 1975 or earlier), juniors (born 2009 or later), and girls (born 2005 or later) did not have SCC places on the line, but there were cash prizes in each of these categories. The winners are:

Seniors: GM Alexei Shirov (@AlexeiShirov), 83.5 points (won $2,500)

Youth: GM Andy Woodward (@Philippians46), 86.5 points (won $2,500)

Girls: WGM Anna Shukhman (@speshka), 66.5 points (won $1,000)

Titled Tuesday is Chess.com's weekly tournament for titled players, with two tournaments held each Tuesday. The first tournament begins at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time/17:00 Central European/20:30 Indian Standard Time, and the second at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time/23:00 Central European/2:30 Indian Standard Time (next day).